Death in the operating room and postanesthesia care unit: helping nurses to cope.

The death of patients in the OR and PACU is an unexpected event that can cause grief, burnout, and turnover among the caregivers who work there. In this era of emphasis on quality, customer satisfaction, and cost containment, prevention of these negative outcomes is important. Although there is scant literature devoted to how nurses cope with patient death in this setting, many of the principles described in the literature for other settings can be applied to assist caregivers to view death as a growth-producing experience, both personally and professionally.